Pyramid Schemes, Bubbles, and Crashes

In this seminar we will study the anthropology of exchange, then use it to analyze ethnographies of financial speculators, labor migrants, microcredit borrowers, and other agents and victims of global capitalism. We will focus on conflicting obligations to kin and to creditors, on how people in different cultures and social classes juggle these obligations, and how the growth of financial debt can turn social relationships into commodities. Studying debt and how it is leveraged in different societies and historical eras will show why capitalism is so vulnerable to speculative booms, swindles, and collapses. 3 hrs. sem. )

Schedule
11:00am-12:15pm on Tuesday, Thursday (Sep 16, 2015 to Dec 11, 2015)
Location
Munroe Hall 405
Instructors